‘The Way of Our Streets’: Exploring the Urban Sacred in Three Australian Poems

Abstract

This article examines three contemporary Australian poems that concern themselves with matters of the sacred within the modern Australian city. Noting that Australian poetry and the sacred have often been studied in terms of the landscape, the article approaches these poems as part of an undercurrent of spiritual or sacred writing that takes up urban Australian spaces as important and resonant sites. Through readings of Kevin Hart's 'Night Music' (2008), Jill Jones's 'Where We Live ' (2007) and Benjamin Frater's 'Ourizen' (2011), the article demonstrates the various ways that contemporary Australian spirituality is poetically expressed in cities such as Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney.